The Prisoner Of Chillon Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBACDCDEEFGHHIIJKJK LLMMNN OOPPPQQRRSTSTPPUUVWM M XXIIBBYYZZA2A2OOOXXB 2B2B2X B2C2C2B2D2JJE2C2C2PB 2B2B2F2BJBPG2G2H2H2 I2I2J2K2L2M2L2M2M2N2 N2G2O2P2G2 G2H2H2Q2R2G2S2S2HPPT 2PU2U2T2T2G2G2 T2T2T2T2EET2T2G2G2V2 V2W2W2T2T2T2T2T2T2T2 TTTS2S2PPT2T2T2T2EEX 2X2T2T2 VVG2G2T2T2G2G2T2T2T2 T2SST2T2JJT2T2H2H2Y2 Y2T2T2Z2Z2T2T2T2T2T2 T2G2G2T2T2G2G2G2A3N2 T2T2T2N2| My hair is grey but not with years | A |
| Nor grew it white | B |
| In a single night | B |
| As men's have grown from sudden fears | A |
| My limbs are bow'd though not with toil | C |
| But rusted with a vile repose | D |
| For they have been a dungeon's spoil | C |
| And mine has been the fate of those | D |
| To whom the goodly earth and air | E |
| Are bann'd and barr'd forbidden fare | E |
| But this was for my father's faith | F |
| I suffer'd chains and courted death | G |
| That father perish'd at the stake | H |
| For tenets he would not forsake | H |
| And for the same his lineal race | I |
| In darkness found a dwelling place | I |
| We were seven who now are one | J |
| Six in youth and one in age | K |
| Finish'd as they had begun | J |
| Proud of Persecution's rage | K |
| One in fire and two in field | L |
| Their belief with blood have seal'd | L |
| Dying as their father died | M |
| For the God their foes denied | M |
| Three were in a dungeon cast | N |
| Of whom this wreck is left the last | N |
| - | |
| There are seven pillars of Gothic mould | O |
| In Chillon's dungeons deep and old | O |
| There are seven columns massy and grey | P |
| Dim with a dull imprison'd ray | P |
| A sunbeam which hath lost its way | P |
| And through the crevice and the cleft | Q |
| Of the thick wall is fallen and left | Q |
| Creeping o'er the floor so damp | R |
| Like a marsh's meteor lamp | R |
| And in each pillar there is a ring | S |
| And in each ring there is a chain | T |
| That iron is a cankering thing | S |
| For in these limbs its teeth remain | T |
| With marks that will not wear away | P |
| Till I have done with this new day | P |
| Which now is painful to these eyes | U |
| Which have not seen the sun so rise | U |
| For years I cannot count them o'er | V |
| I lost their long and heavy score | W |
| When my last brother droop'd and died | M |
| And I lay living by his side | M |
| - | |
| They chain'd us each to a column stone | X |
| And we were three yet each alone | X |
| We could not move a single pace | I |
| We could not see each other's face | I |
| But with that pale and livid light | B |
| That made us strangers in our sight | B |
| And thus together yet apart | Y |
| Fetter'd in hand but join'd in heart | Y |
| 'Twas still some solace in the dearth | Z |
| Of the pure elements of earth | Z |
| To hearken to each other's speech | A2 |
| And each turn comforter to each | A2 |
| With some new hope or legend old | O |
| Or song heroically bold | O |
| But even these at length grew cold | O |
| Our voices took a dreary tone | X |
| An echo of the dungeon stone | X |
| A grating sound not full and free | B2 |
| As they of yore were wont to be | B2 |
| It might be fancy but to me | B2 |
| They never sounded like our own | X |
| - | |
| I was the eldest of the three | B2 |
| And to uphold and cheer the rest | C2 |
| I ought to do and did my best | C2 |
| And each did well in his degree | B2 |
| The youngest whom my father loved | D2 |
| Because our mother's brow was given | J |
| To him with eyes as blue as heaven | J |
| For him my soul was sorely moved | E2 |
| And truly might it be distress'd | C2 |
| To see such bird in such a nest | C2 |
| For he was beautiful as day | P |
| When day was beautiful to me | B2 |
| As to young eagles being free | B2 |
| A polar day which will not see | B2 |
| A sunset till its summer's gone | F2 |
| Its sleepless summer of long light | B |
| The snow clad offspring of the sun | J |
| And thus he was as pure and bright | B |
| And in his natural spirit gay | P |
| With tears for nought but others' ills | G2 |
| And then they flow'd like mountain rills | G2 |
| Unless he could assuage the woe | H2 |
| Which he abhorr'd to view below | H2 |
| - | |
| The other was as pure of mind | I2 |
| But form'd to combat with his kind | I2 |
| Strong in his frame and of a mood | J2 |
| Which 'gainst the world in war had stood | K2 |
| And perish'd in the foremost rank | L2 |
| With joy but not in chains to pine | M2 |
| His spirit wither'd with their clank | L2 |
| I saw it silently decline | M2 |
| And so perchance in sooth did mine | M2 |
| But yet I forced it on to cheer | N2 |
| Those relics of a home so dear | N2 |
| He was a hunter of the hills | G2 |
| Had followed there the deer and wolf | O2 |
| To him this dungeon was a gulf | P2 |
| And fetter'd feet the worst of ills | G2 |
| - | |
| Lake Leman lies by Chillon's walls | G2 |
| A thousand feet in depth below | H2 |
| Its massy waters meet and flow | H2 |
| Thus much the fathom line was sent | Q2 |
| From Chillon's snow white battlement | R2 |
| Which round about the wave inthralls | G2 |
| A double dungeon wall and wave | S2 |
| Have made and like a living grave | S2 |
| Below the surface of the lake | H |
| The dark vault lies wherein we lay | P |
| We heard it ripple night and day | P |
| Sounding o'er our heads it knock'd | T2 |
| And I have felt the winter's spray | P |
| Wash through the bars when winds were high | U2 |
| And wanton in the happy sky | U2 |
| And then the very rock hath rock'd | T2 |
| And I have felt it shake unshock'd | T2 |
| Because I could have smiled to see | G2 |
| The death that would have set me free | G2 |
| - | |
| I said my nearer brother pined | T2 |
| I said his mighty heart declined | T2 |
| He loathed and put away his food | T2 |
| It was not that 'twas coarse and rude | T2 |
| For we were used to hunter's fare | E |
| And for the like had little care | E |
| The milk drawn from the mountain goat | T2 |
| Was changed for water from the moat | T2 |
| Our bread was such as captives' tears | G2 |
| Have moisten'd many a thousand years | G2 |
| Since man first pent his fellow men | V2 |
| Like brutes within an iron den | V2 |
| But what were these to us or him | W2 |
| These wasted not his heart or limb | W2 |
| My brother's soul was of that mould | T2 |
| Which in a palace had grown cold | T2 |
| Had his free breathing been denied | T2 |
| The range of the steep mountain's side | T2 |
| But why delay the truth he died | T2 |
| I saw and could not hold his head | T2 |
| Nor reach his dying hand nor dead | T2 |
| Though hard I strove but strove in vain | T |
| To rend and gnash my bonds in twain | T |
| He died and they unlock'd his chain | T |
| And scoop'd for him a shallow grave | S2 |
| Even from the cold earth of our cave | S2 |
| I begg'd them as a boon to lay | P |
| His corse in dust whereon the day | P |
| Might shine it was a foolish thought | T2 |
| But then within my brain it wrought | T2 |
| That even in death his freeborn breast | T2 |
| In such a dungeon could not rest | T2 |
| I might have spared my idle prayer | E |
| They coldly laugh'd and laid him there | E |
| The flat and turfless earth above | X2 |
| The being we so much did love | X2 |
| His empty chain above it leant | T2 |
| Such Murder's fitting monument | T2 |
| - | |
| But he the favourite and the flower | V |
| Most cherish'd since his natal hour | V |
| His mother's image in fair face | G2 |
| The infant love of all his race | G2 |
| His martyr'd father's dearest thought | T2 |
| My latest care for whom I sought | T2 |
| To hoard my life that his might be | G2 |
| Less wretched now and one day free | G2 |
| He too who yet had held untired | T2 |
| A spirit natural or inspired | T2 |
| He too was struck and day by day | T2 |
| Was wither'd on the stalk away | T2 |
| Oh God it is a fearful thing | S |
| To see the human soul take wing | S |
| In any shape in any mood | T2 |
| I've seen it rushing forth in blood | T2 |
| I've seen it on the breaking ocean | J |
| Strive with a swoln convulsive motion | J |
| I've seen the sick and ghastly bed | T2 |
| Of Sin delirious with its dread | T2 |
| But these were horrors this was woe | H2 |
| Unmix'd with such but sure and slow | H2 |
| He faded and so calm and meek | Y2 |
| So softly worn so sweetly weak | Y2 |
| So tearless yet so tender kind | T2 |
| And grieved for those he left behind | T2 |
| With all the while a cheek whose bloom | Z2 |
| Was as a mockery of the tomb | Z2 |
| Whose tints as gently sunk away | T2 |
| As a departing rainbow's ray | T2 |
| An eye of most transparent light | T2 |
| That almost made the dungeon bright | T2 |
| And not a word of murmur not | T2 |
| A groan o'er his untimely lot | T2 |
| A little talk of better days | G2 |
| A little hope my own to raise | G2 |
| For I was sunk in silence lost | T2 |
| In this last loss of all the most | T2 |
| And then the sighs he would suppress | G2 |
| Of fainting Nature's feebleness | G2 |
| More slowly drawn grew less and less | G2 |
| I listen'd but I could not hear | A3 |
| I call'd for I was wild with fear | N2 |
| I knew 'twas hopeless but my dread | T2 |
| Would not be thus admonish d | T2 |
| I call'd and thought I heard a sound | T2 |
| I burst my chain with one str | N2 |
George Gordon Byron
(1)
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